It’s not something you see every day. An incoming call where the caller ID shows your name and even the phone number matches your own. It turns out, this isn't the scene from a scary movie, according to Sgt. Dennis Carry with the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office, it's an illegal trick, and it's been happening all over the place in northern Nevada.
“Why this one scam now, there's really no way to know except it's effective like almost every other scam, some people will fall for it,” said Carry.
So if you receive the call from what looks to be you, what should you do? Carry says you shouldn't answer it and should instead hang up or decline the call.
But for local resident Jinna Davis, the curiosity was too much for her to ignore.
“I heard something about an account being flagged and they needed my last four digits of my Social Security number, so I obviously hung up,” said Davis.
And hanging up is your best bet. That and of course not sharing any personal information to a source you’re unfamiliar with.
“Any scam has a financial motivation behind it, in the end it's to obtain money,” said Carry.
Carry says scammers use this trick called spoofing to make their number appear as any number that they choose. For a criminal, there's more motivation here than just hiding their identity because there are no apps that can stop your own phone number from calling you.
Carry says that's a big concern because a call to your own phone number gives access to your personal voicemail.
“If you don't answer this call or you don't decline this call, it could have access to your voicemail and if you haven't changed the password it may have access to messages that you have, it'll allow the user to change their voicemail pin and who knows what will happen in the end,” said Carry.
People who have received this call can report it to the Federal Trade Commission or local phone company. However, Carry says there is likely no way to track down the scammers at this time.
